Horse&Rider Magazine - August 2016

ON TEST – SPORTS BRAS FOR HORSE RIDERS • BUYER’S GUIDE TO BODY PROTECTORS • HORSE INSURANCE QUESTIONS ANSWERED The UK’s best-selling equestrian monthly

RIDING • MANAGEMENT • VET • SHOPPING

POSITION

STipEs CforRflatEwTorkS

FREE F

LY MASK

FOR EVERY READER *

BREATHE EASY

BANISH STABLE DUST

and jumping

INSIDE YOUR HORSE’S LEG

VET’S GUIDE

ESSENTIALS

 SAVE YOUR FIELDS  KEEP HIM TRIM

BEACH RIDES! August 2016

GRAZING

Why we love

CONFIDENT RIDER

HACKING PROBLEMS SOLVED

£3.99 * TERMS APPLY

PART THREE In this feature. . .

➤ The importance of a good position

Position

essentials: Flatwork

Have you got into some bad habits over the years? Dressage rider Tania Grantham explains why a good position is so important and helps you iron out the flaws

‘H

eels down, thumbs on top’. How often have you heard your instructor shout instructions like this to correct your position?

I suspect you’ve probably heard it more than once – most of us have! But why is it so important?

A correct riding position enables you to communicate quietly and effectively with your horse, because it makes your aids clear and understandable. Plus, it helps your horse maintain his balance, enabling him to move well and perform to the best of his ability. So, although these little tweaks to your position may seem insignificant, they really can transform your riding.

You have two main positions – one that you use when you’re riding in a straight line in walk and trot, and one that you use on bends, such as circles and turns, and in lateral work and canter. It helps to look at these two positions separately.

Photos: Bob Atkins

On the straight

Halt your horse in a straight line and check your position – you may find it helpful to have a pair of eyes on the ground to help to spot problem areas. There are several things to look out for...

38 HORSE&RIDER

l Arms

Your upper arms should hang vertically beside your torso, with a bend at your elbow. Your lower arms should be held out in front, with a straight line from your elbow all the way to your horse’s mouth. Your hands should be about a fist’s width apart and about a fist’s height above your horse’s withers.

In the saddle

➤ Spotting faults in your position ➤ How to put the problem areas right

l Head, neck and back

Our expert

Your back should appear vertically straight, with your head held up tall and your eyes looking straight ahead, so that your neck is stacked on top of your spine. Your lower back should be rounded to combat the natural hollow, so that the vertical line of your spine isn’t disturbed.

Tania Grantham BHSAI IntSM is a professional dressage rider who, as well as competing, specialises in helping all types of horse and rider enjoy dressage, making it fun, rewarding and attainable for everyone.

l Sitting central

You should be equally placed each side of the centre of your horse – your ears, shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, knees and heels should all be level from in front or behind.

➤

l Legs

Your legs should hang relaxed around your horse. Your hips should be open and your leg rotated in, so your thigh is in full contact with the saddle and your knee is turned in but relaxed. Your heel should be pulled down and back, with your toes up and turned in. This creates a straight line through your shoulder, hip and heel.

HORSE&RIDER 39

A leg to stand on

With thanks to the Animal Health Trust for their help with this feature, aht.org.uk

Ever wondered how such spindly, delicate-looking legs are able to support your horse’s substantial body? Vet Laura Jones from the Animal Health Trust takes a close look at these amazing structures

Our expert

Laura Jones BVSc MRCVS is a Junior Clinician at the Animal Health Trust.

She works in all areas of lameness and poor performance evaluation, and has a particular interest in radiography and MRI.

72 HORSE&RIDER

Ask a vet

M

ost lamenesses are caused by problems with a structure in the lower leg, so knowing how your horse’s leg is put together is really useful when talking to your vet or farrier. Plus, it’s a fascinating part of your horse’s body that’s complex and delicate, yet can withstand incredible forces.

A product of evolution

Understanding the anatomy of your horse’s lower leg is much easier if you take a look at how he has evolved. Horses adapted to live on open grassland, so they are specially designed to be able to escape from predators at speed and exploit distant food sources. They are a member of a group of mammals called ungulates, which means hoofed, and includes mammals with digitigrade locomotion, which means that they walk on their toes.

An interesting aspect of the evolution of the modern horse is that the muscles are grouped high up in the leg – below the knee or hock there are no functional muscles. This means that your horse’s

lower limb is light, which helps him to move at high speed.

The suspensory ligament, which is situated at the back of the cannon bone, contains muscle bundles at the top – this is the only muscle located in the lower limb of the modern horse. These muscle bundles are present because in your horse’s ancestors, the suspensory ligament was actually the interosseous muscle and tendon. Through the course of evolution, the interosseous muscle reduced substantially and the tendon elongated, eventually becoming the suspensory ligament as we know it today.

The lower limb is essentially a series of levers (bones and joints) and associated tendons that transmit the energy generated by the muscles further up the leg to move it. Energy is also created when the limb hits the ground, and your horse has evolved to be able to store this energy in his tendons and ligaments as they stretch, which is then released as they shorten to help push the limb back up again, just like a spring. This enables him to recycle energy, so he expends less energy in muscle contraction when moving.

Under pressure

As well as being light and fast, your horse’s limbs are strong enough to support the substantial weight of his trunk and withstand the significant forces generated when his leg strikes the ground. There are several ways his legs cope with these forces...

t igned to be light and fas

Your horse’s legs are des

• his hoof wall, although tough to the touch, is flexible and expands as it hits the ground to dissipate the force • his frog and the spongey digital cushion underneath it are adapted to absorb concussion • the ungular or collateral cartilages (plates of cartilage attached to either side of the pedal bone) dissipate energy via the flow of blood through an extensive network of blood vessels within the cartilage, a process known as haemodynamic flow • the tendons and ligaments stretch like elastic bands, absorbing the force

➤

HORSE&RIDER 73

TOP TIP

Another one

Dust can travel to your horse’s stable from adjacent beds, so try to implement a yard-wide approach to dust-busting.

bites the dust It can affect your horse’s comfort, performance and happiness, but it can be prevented. Horse&Rider explains how to get rid of stable dust once and for all

W

e’ve all been there – out for a ride on a beautiful summer’s day, enjoying the sunshine and the scenery, when your horse lets out the sort of bone-jarring cough that nearly yanks you out of the saddle. But what causes respiratory irritation in horses and how can you prevent it? The culprit is usually your horse’s stable.

Horses’ respiratory systems feature a multi-layered defence system that prevents infection and accommodates the vast amounts of airflow and oxygen exchange

90 HORSE&RIDER

required for strenuous activity. These defences include mucous-producing cells, the constant secretions of which trap particles in the lungs. These are picked up by hair-like cilia, which line the walls of the upper respiratory tract and pass the foreign particles back up to the throat, where they can be coughed up or swallowed.

Unfortunately, these defensive aids can’t stand up to the extra respiratory stress that stabling presents. Dark, dusty and often with inadequate airflow, stables can do more harm than good if they’re not correctly managed.

Management know-how

If your horse lives in an American barn, keep the main doors open at all times to promote a constant airflow

Airing it out

Stables constantly create dust and, unless enough fresh air is circulating throughout the building and carrying it out, this can have a detrimental effect on the function of your horse’s lungs. Keep any available windows open, even in cold weather, because adequate ventilation should be the top priority.

If your horse is kept in an American barn, keep the main doors open at all times to promote a constant airflow. Stables closer to the doors tend to benefit from fresher air than those in the centre, so if your horse suffers from a respiratory condition, it may be worth moving him to a different box.

Best bedding

Finding the right bedding for your horse is often a case of trial-and-error. Good-quality straw can be almost dust-free, but the majority of the straw on the market isn’t and, like hay, it produces mould spores. Wood shavings are a better option, with many marketed as ‘dust-extracted’, although these specially-produced shavings are more expensive than those sourced from a sawmill. Although expensive initially, wood pellets, hemp, flax and rapeseed bedding can prove good TOP TIP value for money in the long-term, while Feeding from the floor, maintaining a dust-free and hygienic bed. rather than a haynet, allows For a reasonably dry horse, shredded for the natural drainage of your paper can be the best option, although horse’s nasal tract and can if you’re a stickler for a tidy yard, its have a positive effect on his unruliness may drive you mad! respiratory health.

For horses with chronic respiratory conditions, rubber matting with a thin layer of absorbent bedding over the top can be the best option. It’s important that matting is properly maintained – it should be pulled up regularly to allow the stable floor to dry out, otherwise the trapped ammonia can cause further respiratory issues.

➤

HORSE&RIDER 91